


The Deadliest Embrace Of Them All

by MusicPlotter



Series: Whumptober 2019 [31]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Death, Don't copy to another site, Gen, I'm Sorry, Irondad, No.31 Embrace, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 10:56:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21242957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicPlotter/pseuds/MusicPlotter
Summary: Tony's thoughts before he snaps.





	The Deadliest Embrace Of Them All

He had to do this. 

Not because it would save the world, not because it would allow them to win but because he had a family now. A family that he would do absolutely anything to protect. Including sacrifice himself.

They would miss him, but they had each other. Pepper would accept Peter into their little family, Tony knew that she thought of him as a son after all of the stories Tony had told about the clumsy teenager. Peter, who he had just got back. He would do anything to keep his son in all but blood alive.

Morgan… his sweet little girl. She had forced him to realise that he already had a kid, that he had loved Peter as a son all along. The very thought of her growing up without Tony made his heartbreak, but if he didn’t do this, then she wouldn’t be able to grow up in the first place.

Pepper would be distraught. She would keep her emotions locked away from the kids but Tony knew that Rhodey would be there for her, that he and Happy would stop her from losing herself to the grief.

He had often been described as a selfish man by the press, even more so the past few years when he had locked himself and his family away from the world instead of helping to rebuild it. Of course, they didn’t know that he was simply running things behind the scenes, but they had no right to know the amount of responsibility Tony felt to the world. So yes, the world thought of him as selfish. Tony thought it fitting that the one time he would appear selfless he was being the most selfish he had ever been.

Ultimately, he was doing this for himself. So he didn’t have to live a life in guilt because of all the deaths that his inaction could cause. So he didn’t have to look his family in the eye and tell them that he hadn’t done it. 

Maybe he wasn’t an inherently good man, but he tried to be. Every second of every damned day he tried to be a better person than he was. To be a better father, a better husband, a better friend. A better superhero.

Pepper would say that was all a good man was. That all good men had their faults. 

Tony disagreed.

So if this was to be his final act, he would embrace it. Let it define him as the man who saved the world for his own selfish reasons because wasn’t that just the most accurate way to describe his entire life? 

Peter had always looked up to him. Tony had told him he wanted Peter to be better but that was only because he already knew that Peter was. Peter was essentially everything that he had strived to become. Sure, he had a bit of growing to do but Peter was the best thing that had ever happened to this world.

“And I am Iron Man.”

And he was. Just as he was Tony Stark. Just as he was a father, a husband, a friend. Just as he was genius, billionaire, philanthropist. It was just one part of his identity. Iron Man wasn’t the bigger picture here, Tony was. And he had a decision to make.

As if he ever had any choice, it had always been leading to this.

He embraced his fate.

He snapped.

**Author's Note:**

> IM SO SORRY. IF YOU WANT IMAGINE THAT HE GETS MEDICAL HELP IN TIME BECAUSE NO ONE'S JUST GONNA SIT AROUND AND WATCH HIM DIE THIS TIME OKAY COOL.
> 
> *CLEARS THROAT AGGRESSIVELY*
> 
> So yeah guys let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. I thought I had to make this one extra angsty because it's the last one for Whumptober! Wooo I made it!! There have been a few ups and downs, but we're here now :D
> 
> As usual, you can find me [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/musicplotter) on Tumblr.


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